Bitcoin Lightning Network Hits 1,000 BTC Capacity on Its One Year Anniversary

Bitcoin Lightning Network Hits 1,000 BTC Capacity on Its One Year Anniversary

Bitcoin Lightning Network has surpassed 1,000 BTC network capacity on its one year anniversary. The event highlights’ the layer-two scaling solution’s progression in the short span of only a year.

Bitcoin Lightning Network: Happy Birthday!

One year ago, on March 15th, Lightning Labs CEO, Elizabeth Stark, announced the first official beta implementation of the Lightning Network. The solution saw support from Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey, Tesla and SpaceX investor Bill Lee, backing from computer giant Microsoft, and other prominent members of the cryptocurrency community.

One year later, the Lighting Network (LN) has gone a long way. According to LN monitoring website 1ML, the network’s capacity is 1,056.83 BTC or more than $4.2 million, marking a 54 percent increase over the last 30 days alone.

The number of channels has also jumped with more than 47 percent in the last month, currently standing at 39,222. The number of nodes is 7,381 – 17.89 percent increase throughout the same period.

Moreover, the actual adoption of the LN is also making serious advances. Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey praised the scaling solution, outlining that it’s only a matter of time for it to come to Twitter:

It’s not an ‘if;’ it’s more of a ‘when’ – how do we make sure that we’re getting the speed that we need and the efficiency?

LN also gained massive attention thanks to an initiative by user hodlonaut called the Lightning Torch. It aims to raise awareness of Lightning Network’s benefits by passing around a snowballing payment around the globe instantly and at almost no cost.

LN’s Not Only Good for Micropayments

Network Engineer Melik Manukyan (@realLudvigArt) also pointed out that liquidity also increasing as the BTC/USD exchange rate rises.

More in Anniversary

/latest/2019/03/some-reflections-on-the-one-year-anniversary-of-bitcoins-lightning-network/ On 15 March 2018, Californian blockchain startup Lightning Labs announced the release of the beta 0.4 version...